What both Trump and his critics get wrong about the IRGC terrorist designation. Brookings Instution.
Eric Fleury, College of the Holy Cross
The Trump administration in April designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran, a branch of Iran’s military and intelligence services, as a terrorist group. Any groups designated this way are cut off from potential U.S. funding, communications with Americans, travel to the U.S. and other American “material support.”
The Muslim Brotherhood, an Egyptian political party founded on Islamic ideals, may be next.
The IRGC is the first government agency to receive such a designation, which calls attention to the political purposes that often prompts additions and removals from the list. Since its creation in 1997, the State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organizations list has been used to punish enemies, appease allies and advance discrete U.S. foreign policy interests.
My annotated version of this list exposes the quirks, inconsistencies and strategic logic behind the “terrorist” designation, revealing why it’s hardly a master directory of the militant groups most likely to target Americans.
This document was edited using Genius. To see an annotation, click or tap the gray-highlighted part of the transcript. Go here to view the annotations – or add your own – on the Genius website. Common spellings of group names are in parentheses.
Eric Fleury, Visiting Assistant Professor, College of the Holy Cross
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Foreign terrorist watchlist
Additions by US presidential administration
1997-2000 – Clinton
Abu Sayyaf Group
Aum Shinrikyo
Basque Fatherland and Liberty
Gama’a al-Islamiyya
HAMAS
Harakat ul-Mujahidin
Hizballah (Hezbollah)
Kahane Chai
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
National Liberation Army
Palestine Liberation Front
Palestine Islamic Jihad
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
PFLP-General Command
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front
Shining Path
al-Qa’ida (Al Qaeda)
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
2001-2008 – Bush
Real Irish Republican Army
Jaish-e-Mohammed
Lashkar-e Tayyiba (Lashkar-e-Taiba)
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade
Asbat al-Ansar
al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb
Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army
Jemaah Islamiya
Lashkar i Jhangvi
Ansar al-Islam
Continuity Irish Republican Army
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Islamic Jihad Union
Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami/Bangladesh
al-Shabaab
Revolutionary Struggle
Kata’ib Hizballah
al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula
2009-2016 – Obama
Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami
Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan
Jundallah
Army of Islam
Indian Mujahedeen
Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid
Abdallah Azzam Brigades
Haqqani Network
Ansar al-Dine
Boko Haram
Ansaru
al-Mulathamun Battalion
Ansar al-Shari’a in Benghazi
Ansar al-Shari’a in Darnah
Ansar al-Shari’a in Tunisia
ISIL Sinai Province
al-Nusrah Front
Mujahidin Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem
Jaysh Rijal al-Tariq al Naqshabandi
ISIL-Khorasan
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s Branch in Libya
Al-Qa’ida in the Indian Subcontinent
2017-2019 – Trump
Hizbul Mujahideen
ISIS-Bangladesh
ISIS-Philippines
ISIS-West Africa
ISIS-Greater Sahara
al-Ashtar Brigades
Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin
Islamic Revolutionary Guard CorpsUS Foreign Terrorist WatchlistSource: U.S. Department of State